Olympic Games Coverage

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

BBC have announced that they have obtained the rights to show both summer and winter Olympic games through to 2032:

 

Olympic Games to remain free to air on BBC up to 2032 - BBC Sport

 

In the past, British viewers were spoiled by the BBC - particularly in London and Rio - with dedicated coverage for each individual sport so you didn't miss anything. Unfortunately, after the rights were sold to WB Discovery, the BBC coverage pretty much fell off a cliff and we were left with just 2 live streams and only one of them was on terrestrial TV whilst the other was online. For Tokyo, we had to endure hours of "talking heads" filling the time with inane chatter talking about sports that they hadn't bothered to research and didn't have a clue what was going on.

 

So, whilst it's good news that the BBC will be continuing to show the games, if the terms are the same as they were for Tokyo, I think it is safe to say that true sports fans will be left wholly underwhelmed by their offering. 

[Grassmarket 4,031]

Yep, very foreseeable problems when three or more British medal chances conflict.

[phelps 8,287]

57 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

Yep, very foreseeable problems when three or more British medal chances conflict.

luckily, the British medal chances will be a lot less in the near future...so, you won't miss much in that department...

[phelps 8,287]

by the way, this is the official news about the new Pan-European deal beatween WB Discovery & EBU and the IOC

 

https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-awards-exclusive-2026-2032-olympic-games-media-rights-in-europe

[Jinzha 702]

3 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

BBC have announced that they have obtained the rights to show both summer and winter Olympic games through to 2032:

 

Olympic Games to remain free to air on BBC up to 2032 - BBC Sport

 

In the past, British viewers were spoiled by the BBC - particularly in London and Rio - with dedicated coverage for each individual sport so you didn't miss anything. Unfortunately, after the rights were sold to WB Discovery, the BBC coverage pretty much fell off a cliff and we were left with just 2 live streams and only one of them was on terrestrial TV whilst the other was online. For Tokyo, we had to endure hours of "talking heads" filling the time with inane chatter talking about sports that they hadn't bothered to research and didn't have a clue what was going on.

 

So, whilst it's good news that the BBC will be continuing to show the games, if the terms are the same as they were for Tokyo, I think it is safe to say that true sports fans will be left wholly underwhelmed by their offering. 

The situation in the Netherlands is exactly the same with the NOS. Their coverage really declined in quality in Tokyo and that's not at all to blame on the NOS and wholly on the ridiculous Discovery deal. Without multi streams on national broadcasters, you're left with a really shallow coverage of only sports where someone from your country is active and everything else is behind a paywall. 

[Grassmarket 4,031]

16 minutes ago, Jinzha said:

The situation in the Netherlands is exactly the same with the NOS. Their coverage really declined in quality in Tokyo and that's not at all to blame on the NOS and wholly on the ridiculous Discovery deal. Without multi streams on national broadcasters, you're left with a really shallow coverage of only sports where someone from your country is active and everything else is behind a paywall. 

Yeah, we got really great coverage 2012-2016, but now it’s back to 1996 as far as mainstream coverage in most of Europe is concerned.

[hckošice 15,525]

Slovak public broadcaster RTVS signed the deal today as well for 2028 and 2032 Summer Games and 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics as well.

 

As Each EBU member RTVS will thanks to this contract be able to broadcast more than 200 Live hours of the Olympic Games, which will take place in Los Angeles in the United States in 2028 and Brisbane in Australia in 2032. They will also be able to provide TV viewers with at least 100 Live hours of the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo and the next 2030 Winter Olympics as well.

 

So quite a Great news for us, we have basically our RTVS, Czech public ČT Sport and both Eurosports covering the Olympics... all publicly accessible in the country

Edited January 16, 2023 by hckošice

[Quaker2001 258]

I've heard a lot about this arrangement for the past few Olympics and sorry to hear for European fans of the Olympics that it's continuing.  Apologies on behalf of an American company that is doing this all to you.  I guess for some it's a good thing, but definitely not in certain countries where there used to be much better coverage.

 

And I'll say this on behalf of 1 of the few Americans who doesn't detest NBC's coverage of the Olympics.. we don't have it as bad as many people would have you believe.  Yes, NBC's coverage is full of commercials and sticks with certain athletes sometimes ignoring the rest of the world.  But we have everything streamed and it's all under 1 umbrella.  So if you know what you're looking for and are willing to deal with a poorly designed interface to access those streams, it can be a very pleasant experience

[phelps 8,287]

4 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

I've heard a lot about this arrangement for the past few Olympics and sorry to hear for European fans of the Olympics that it's continuing.  Apologies on behalf of an American company that is doing this all to you.  I guess for some it's a good thing, but definitely not in certain countries where there used to be much better coverage.

 

And I'll say this on behalf of 1 of the few Americans who doesn't detest NBC's coverage of the Olympics.. we don't have it as bad as many people would have you believe.  Yes, NBC's coverage is full of commercials and sticks with certain athletes sometimes ignoring the rest of the world.  But we have everything streamed and it's all under 1 umbrella.  So if you know what you're looking for and are willing to deal with a poorly designed interface to access those streams, it can be a very pleasant experience

tbh, I always dreamed of a coverage like we had in Tokyo...

 

OK, Discovery messed up quite a few things, but having all the streams (in good quality, even if I missed the 4K a lot) of all the events live and on demand was priceless.

 

for the first time ever, I could really choose what to watch and when...I only hope that next time round they will keep the Olympic streams available on the apps for connected devices a bit longer, so to easily get all the things I had to skip in the 2 Olympic weeks because of the lack of time.

 

and OK, it's behind a paywall, but it's an extremely cheap wall, that 99% of people can easily afford without any regret.

 

therefore I'm more than happy of this new deal between WB-D and the IOC.

[Grassmarket 4,031]

9 minutes ago, phelps said:

tbh, I always dreamed of a coverage like we had in Tokyo...

 

OK, Discovery messed up quite a few things, but having all the streams (in good quality, even if I missed the 4K a lot) of all the events live and on demand was priceless.

 

for the first time ever, I could really choose what to watch and when...I only hope that next time round they will keep the Olympic streams available on the apps for connected devices a bit longer, so to easily get all the things I had to skip in the 2 Olympic weeks because of the lack of time.

 

and OK, it's behind a paywall, but it's an extremely cheap wall, that 99% of people can easily afford without any regret.

 

therefore I'm more than happy of this new deal between WB-D and the IOC.

Yeah: I’d rather pay & get the service than not pay & not get it.